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Making a DVD is fairly easy! I’ve done this loads of times before! All you need is a menu, a ProRes file, and DVD Studio Pro. Then you burn to your heart’s desire. Shouldn’t take me more than a few weeks to get these all finished, right? Wrong. I was so wrong! But now I’m a pro, and I’m going to tell you how to be one too.

When my production team and I first started crowdfunding our feature documentary, Trichster, in the summer of 2012, we offered DVDs as one of our incentives. We figured that since our film was going to be small, it would be no big deal to burn a handful and send them to our supporters. Little did we know that that first campaign would gain international attention, that our film would end up on ABC’s 2020, or that we’d soon be winning awards for a documentary we were all making in our spare time.

Once we finished the film (two years later than we thought) it was time to fulfil our crowdfunding rewards. At this point my producers and I started questioning whether or not people would even want a DVD. Who watches DVDs anymore? Now it’s all about streaming sites like Amazon and Netflix. We had already released the film on iTunes and VHX and sent our supporters their digital downloads. Maybe we didn’t need to make DVDs after all! Once we released Trichster, the emails from fans started pouring in. People wanted to know when and how they could buy their DVDs. As it turns out, Trichster has a wide range of audiences. A lot of people don’t have iTunes accounts or find VOD platforms like VHX confusing and difficult to navigate. We knew that we needed to make DVDs. I figured the process wouldn’t be all that difficult. But what I thought was going to take me 3 weeks ended up taking 4 months.

SUBTITLES: They’re not what they seem

First I needed to gather my assets. I have one 73 minute feature film and 4 bonus feature clips to include. I also needed English and Spanish subtitles for the film, since we have a large Spanish speaking following. I’m about to get really technical here so bear with me!

I had already had an English SRT file made (total cost: $500) for our online closed caption delivery. I needed to find a place that could convert the file into a STL file in order to make the DVDs. I’m no genius when it comes to subtitle file types, so this was an incredible learning experience. I tried downloading some software which would allow me to edit my SRT file and do the conversion myself. After 4 days of frustration and wasted time, I gave up and decided it’s best left to the professionals. I got quotes from a few different caption houses and settled on one that was reasonably priced and in my area. They wanted $657 for the Spanish subtitles and $25 for the SRT to STL conversion.

Here’s where frame rates come into play. My film was shot and finished at 23.98fps. Our NTSC DVD needed to be 29.97fps, and we needed to make a PAL DVD for our international community at 25fps. 3 different frame rates equals 6 different subtitle files. I asked my subtitle house to do a blind conversion, meaning they don’t manually sync up the text to the picture. Seems like it would work anyway right? Wrong. So I spent $175 for a conversion that didn’t work before having to have them manually sync the English and Spanish titles for a cool $643.86. Finally, I had my titles ready to send to my DVD authorer. Total cost of digital closed captioning and DVD subtitles: $1,975.86.

MENU DESIGN: It pays to have talented friends

It dawned on me that I had better have my DVD menu artwork all figured out before I sent my assets over to my DVD authorer. Luckily, I have an extremely talented friend who is a whiz at Photoshop who volunteered to design all of my assets for me. She designed the disk artwork, DVD case artwork, and all 4 pages of the DVD menu. After a week of printing out tests and trying different things, we finalized the artwork. Now, let’s get those DVD’s made!

DVD AUTHORING: NTSC and PAL and what region now?

After putting my feelers out to my network of independent filmmaker friends, I picked a guy who cut me a break because I was an independent documentarian trying to do work that helped people. He explained to me the different file types that he’d need from me and talked to me about converting all 5 of my video files from 23.98fps to NTSC 29.97fps and PAL 25fps (10 files total!). PAL is optimised for TVs in Europe, Thailand, Russia, Australia, Singapore, China, and the Middle East while NTSC is optimised for TVs in the USA, Canada, and Japan. He said he’d also make all DVDs region 0 so that they would play in DVD players in all countries. He did the conversions and worked with me to send my subtitle house the correct transcodes so that my titles lined up. I send him a timecode list of where our chapter makers should be. After some back and forth, he sent me my preview disks for me to approve before making the final masters.

PANIC ENSUES: Is this DVD in sync?

I held onto my test DVDs for about a month. I watched them at home on my DVD player. I watched them at work. I had my friends who work in post-production watch them. I was convinced something was wrong with them. I couldn’t tell if the film was in sync, if it was drifting out of sync, or if I had just seen the film so many times that I was going crazy. Most of my friends said it was fine and that I was being crazy. Finally, after sleepless nights and panicked phone calls to my producer, a friend in IT told me something that calmed my nerves right away: all DVDs are highly compressed and all DVD players are doing their own frame rate conversion in order to play on whatever monitor it’s being played on. Some monitors playback at 59.97fps, some are 23.98fps, etc. These things are not, and will never be, in my control. I was released of my worry! Onto the mass printing of the DVDs.

DUPLICATION v. REPLICATION: Isn’t that the same thing?

As it turns out, a DVD authorer is not the same thing as a DVD printer. Once I had my final DVDs ready to go, I needed to get them printed. We wanted 500 NTSC DVDs and 100 PAL DVDs. Our choice was to either duplicate or replicate them. Which to me sounded like the exact same thing. Except it’s not, and one is more expensive. A DVD duplicator extracts data from the master disc and writes it to a blank disc, like making a copy, whereas the replication process is essentially cloning a master disk. Duplication can be done much faster, and at a higher price, while replication is more time consuming but less costly. We chose to replicate our DVD since it would save us about $500. After 2 weeks, I got the call that my DVDs were ready! I went and picked up 6 boxes of shiny, plastic-wrapped, DVDs. I’ll admit, seeing it for the first time was pretty cool. Total cost of DVD printing: $1591.42

SHIPPING 200 DVDs: Or, how to be the most annoying person at the post office

So I had 6 boxes of DVDs sitting in my living room. Time to email our supporters and get their addresses so I can ship. I know there are easy ways to ship mass quantities of DVDs, but when you are without a printer it makes it difficult. So, one Saturday, I put on Friends re-runs and I started hand writing the 200 envelopes and stuffing the DVDs into the packages. I then made 4 separate trips to the postoffice to use the self-serve machine. I had to go to the counter to mail the international envelopes which created a big line and made people behind me a tad irritated! As it turns out, it costs $13.25 to ship each international envelope! Note to self- consider this when choosing crowdfunding incentives.

So many DVD packages!

WHAT I LEARNED: DVDs are cool, but do we need them today?

I have to say, it was an amazing feeling to send out our DVDs. It was really the last hurdle I had to jump for Trichster, and it felt like closing a chapter on a crazy 4 ½ year period of my young life. I’m really proud that we even made it this far and that we were able to send our supporters what they were promised. I feel like we’ve made a difference and I’ve learned so much about the entire filmmaking process. It’s so fun to see fans excited about receiving their DVDs on social media. That being said, next time around I would not make DVDs. The world is changing and people don’t consume media the same way they used to. Most of us plop down on the couch and head to Netflix or iTunes to watch our favorite content. At a whopping total of $3,567.28 to make our DVDs, I think it’s better to put funding into marketing than to put so much time and effort into such an expensive process! That being said, it’s an incredible feeling to hold your professionally printed DVD in your hands. Best of luck indie filmmakers!

The 15th of April, 2016 is a day I won’t soon forget. It’s the day I screened Trichster to a room of 400 people, more specifically, 400 people from the Trichotillomania community. It was my third time at a TLC Conference, but this time I wasn’t there to film sessions or raise funds to finish Trichster, I was there to show people what they had been asking about and looking forward to for years.

I was asked to say something before the film started, which was incredibly difficult. All day I pondered what I would say, and as the minutes ticked down to our screening I was overcome with anxiety. Not only is Trichster “my baby” that I’ve been shaping since early 2012, but now I was going to show it to the BFRB community. What if they didn’t like it? What if they were bored? What if I disappointed them?

Shakily, I approached the podium and told them the truth: that I was nervous to show them, that I was forever grateful for all of the people who signed a release, donated, tweeted, blogged, or told their friends about the film, and that I hoped it made a difference to them. The lights dimmed. The Trichster theme music played. Then something wonderful happened! I listened as a room of 400 people laughed at the funny parts and sighed at the sad. Watching them fall in love with my friends on the screen was magical. I was standing in the very back of the huge ballroom when the credits rolled and the crowd clapped. Hearing (and feeling) that many people support our film was entirely overwhelming. It felt like all the years of planning shoots, of keeping track of releases, of carrying heavy camera equipment around New York City, of spending hours and hours editing and re-editing, of applying for film festivals and reading acceptance and rejection letters was cummulating at this very moment. I actually did it! I finished Trichster. And people like it! I’ve succeeded.

Listening to people’s reactions to the film is my favorite part. I love hearing which people in the film you connect to and why. I love knowing that a scene moved you. I especially love when you tell me you connect to the film in a way I’ve never thought of before. I love feeling like Trichster is starting a conversation and helping people communicate about Trichotillomania. This is my reward for making the film.

The TLC Conferences are always an emotional experience for me. I feel such love and deep connection for the community of people who attend the conferences, and each year it is harder to say goodbye. This year was particularly stirring.

The Trichster team is still working! We’re in the middle of having DVDs made (many of you will be receiving a copy due to your crowdfunding contribution) and we’re working on marketing strategies to help get the word out. We’d love to hear from you if you can help!

So please, keep in touch with me! Email us and tell us about your experience watching Trichster! Write us a review on iTunes and help us encourage people to watch the film. Make Trichotillomania an everyday word. Help us make some noise!

The Cucalorus FilmFestival has been named one of the “Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World” the past 2 years in a row by Filmmaker Magazine. Some amazing films have played here (The Tribe, Short Term 12, Blue Ruin), and we’re beyond excited that Trichster will be added to this list as an early selection! We hope those of you in the area will come out and support us! We’re expecting a great time. Stay tuned for information about our screening date and time.

Another laurel to add to our collection!

Cucalorus 2014

NewFilmmakers New York is an ongoing festival that showcases work from fresh filmmakers (like us!) and we’re really looking forward to having another screening in New York, where the film was shot! We hope to see some familiar faces there! Tickets are $6 and can be purchased at the box office at 5:30pm the night of the screening.

Many of you have been asking when you can see the film, and we are working really hard to bring it to you! We’ve been meeting with distributors and working out what the best option is for our film. We really appreciate your patience as we take the time to learn about distribution options. We hope to be releasing Trichster to you soon, and will be updating you when we do!

On Sunday, August 16th, Trichster had another packed screening at the Voiceless International Film Festival in Oakland, California. It was one of the hottest days of the year, and even despite the heat and lack of Air Conditioning, our fans came out to support us. We saw familiar faces that make appearances in the film, and met several new friends who have been following us for years. We look forward to continuing to meet you!

Entrance to the Voiceless Film Festival

A week later, we learned that Trichster won Best Documentary at the festival! Woohoo!

And some exciting news, we’ve got another screening on the calendar! We’re happy to announce that we’ve been accepted into the Princeton International Film Festival and will be screening in Princeton, NJ sometime during Sept. 17th-19th. East coasters, here we come! Stay tuned for more details.

Trichster is “a documentary that simply grabbed our attention and hearts with its artistry and subject matter.”

-Los Angeles Center Studios

A few weeks ago Trichster had it’s west coast premiere at the Los Angeles Center Studios (LACS) having won their Young Filmmaker Competition. LACS is an awesome place where tons of movies, commercials, and music videos are shot. Taylor Swift shot her Vevo record breaking music video “Bad Blood” there, and Brad and Angelina shot scenes from Mr. and Mrs. Smith there. To say that we were excited to screen at LACS is an understatement.

Heading down to the theater!

Filmmakers under the age of 30 were invited to submit their work, and one winner (Trichster!) was chosen to screen their film at the Beaudry Theater, an amazing 400 seat theater. They threw us a reception before the screening with appetizers and desserts and then we were escorted in to see the film.

So many of you came to support us and it was really amazing to see some familiar faces that we filmed in past years at the TLC Retreat and Conferences. It was incredible to have such a good turnout and to be recognized for our work with Trichster.

Want to see Trichster in a theater near you? Tell us where you are! The more people that want to see the film in one location, the more likely it is that we can bring it to you. Please take a moment to fill out this survey.

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About Trichster

The documentary follows the lives of seven trichsters over the course of a year and details their daily struggles with Trichotillomania. What is it like to have trich? How often do people pull out their hair? Why do they do it? How does it affect their friends and loved ones?

We are on a quest to discover how we can make a difference in the trich community by raising awareness, generating interest, and ultimately, allowing those who are silently suffering to come forward and seek help.